I found the child in the image below especially interesting. He was dressed in such a distinctive way, with his camouflage shirt…

I found the child in the image below especially interesting. He was dressed in such a distinctive way, with his camouflage shirt and sweater wrapped around his head. And even though he was so young, he was so very serious, like many of the other children. I’m not sure where that seriousness comes from – skepticism they learn from their parents, perhaps? It’s hard to know how many white people pass through their villages, but I imagine not very many. Given their level of curiosity, it’s possible we’re the first some of them have seen. –

I found the child in the image below especially interesting. He was dressed in such a distinctive way, with his camouflage shirt and sweater wrapped around his head. And even though he was so young, he was so very serious, like many of the other children. I’m not sure where that seriousness comes from – skepticism they learn from their parents, perhaps? It’s hard to know how many white people pass through their villages, but I imagine not very many. Given their level of curiosity, it’s possible we’re the first some of them have seen.

And we did indeed find a new hotel. It was much better in many ways, though it still had its quirks. For example, our double room came with bright pink mosquito net canopies. Our childhood princess personas were overjoyed. And they tried to really do it up with the shower, adding horizontally projecting spray faucets. We think these were intended to offer massages, but instead they sprayed out of the gaps in the shower doors and all over the bathroom floor. It was a bit complicated trying to figure out how to use just the regular old shower head. Ultimately, we know we could be spending the night on the floors of the tiny village homes where we’ve done most of our reporting, so we’re quite grateful for the quality of accommodations we have received.

Ultimately, IWMF has made the logistics of traveling in what are otherwise places that are difficult to navigate so much easier. The fixers, who are top notch, handle everything for us. We don’t have to map anything out, we don’t have to find hotels or restaurants ourselves, and we don’t have to keep track of contact information for many of our subjects even. They’re on top of it. And as a journalist who rarely gets the opportunity to report outside of the U.S., it’s quite a relief to have someone handle all of this for me, especially in a place where I don’t speak the language and am not well versed in local customs. See our great fixer Steve, center, with our driver Sampriess (sp?), right, and one of our story contacts, Sam, left, along with Danielle and me in the photo below. Our team has been spectacular, and we’re so grateful to hear the stories people are telling us in this beautiful country. – Whitney Shefte

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We unleash the potential of women journalists as champions of press freedom to transform the global news media.